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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 11h

I make it quite clear in the introduction that I have always liked you better than the Americans, not to worry!

Reposted by Helene von Bismarck

Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 1d

Now open: call for the Royal Historical Society's First Book and Early Career Article Prizes, 2026.

Eligible titles, published in 2025, may be submitted by the author before the closing date of 15 December. Further details and how to apply: bit.ly/3KnR47v

#Skystorians

Royal Historical Society Book and Article Prizes, 2026: submissions now invited - RHS

The Royal Historical Society invites applications for its First Book Prize, 2026 and Early Career Article Prize, 2026. The call for submissions opens on Monday 29 September 2025 and runs to Monday 15 ...

bit.ly

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 14h

Thank you. I am really touched.

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Reposted by Helene von Bismarck

Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 17h

The offer is valid until 17 October. I know it is early but preorders can make a huge difference, so if you are interested, I would be hugely grateful if you could spread the word.

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Reposted by Helene von Bismarck

Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 17h

Deep breath. My publisher @johnmurrays.bsky.social informs me that my book about 🇬🇧,
"Fantastic Kingdom“
which will come out in June 2026,
is now available to pre-order, and that @waterstones.bsky.social is offering a 25% preorder discount this week.
www.waterstones.com/book/fantast...

Fantastic Kingdom by Helene von Bismarck | Waterstones

Buy Fantastic Kingdom by Helene von Bismarck from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

www.waterstones.com

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 17h

It is also already available to pre-order on Amazon.

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 17h

The offer is valid until 17 October. I know it is early but preorders can make a huge difference, so if you are interested, I would be hugely grateful if you could spread the word.

3 4 12

Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 17h

Deep breath. My publisher @johnmurrays.bsky.social informs me that my book about 🇬🇧,
"Fantastic Kingdom“
which will come out in June 2026,
is now available to pre-order, and that @waterstones.bsky.social is offering a 25% preorder discount this week.
www.waterstones.com/book/fantast...

Fantastic Kingdom by Helene von Bismarck | Waterstones

Buy Fantastic Kingdom by Helene von Bismarck from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

www.waterstones.com

18 62 190

Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

Completing a book manuscript really is like being nine months pregnant. Everybody on the school run is like: "How are you doing. Are you ok? Does it hurt?That will only get worse, won‘t it? Not long now!“

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

Of course Not. I would settle for a normal way of talking about it.

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

I am very aware that you „can‘t just rejoin tomorrow“, but perhaps you could start talking about the relationship with Europe in a non-paranoid, non elephant in the room-way?

Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

The Labour Position is weird. "we absolutely won‘t do something about that thing we think is really bad for the Country, and for which we blame the Tories."
Sounds like being invited late to a party you always wanted to attend, except now you are declining out of pique.

Dr Stylite @columnist.bsky.social · 1d

If it’s self damaging for the Conservatives to continue to profess their support for a Brexit no one likes, it’s incoherent - and self damaging - for Labour to both dislike Brexit but at the same time to (largely) support it in its current form.

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

The Labour Position is weird. "we absolutely won‘t do something about that thing we think is really bad for the Country, and for which we blame the Tories."
Sounds like being invited late to a party you always wanted to attend, except now you are declining out of pique.

Dr Stylite @columnist.bsky.social · 1d

If it’s self damaging for the Conservatives to continue to profess their support for a Brexit no one likes, it’s incoherent - and self damaging - for Labour to both dislike Brexit but at the same time to (largely) support it in its current form.

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Reposted by Helene von Bismarck

Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

"C‘est normal", shrugs the worldly and contrarian diplomat/ columnist, demonstrating his superior mind by never, ever being surprised or shocked.

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Reposted by Helene von Bismarck

Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 1d

The Atlantic’s journalists will not sign the Pentagon’s press policy. Statement here from editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg:

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Reposted by Helene von Bismarck

Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 1d

This deserves more attention than it has received.

Gove: "we were too anxious as a government to secure those deals in order to show that Brexit was working".

Exactly as so many of us warned at the time, and as the government denied at the time.
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/country-and-...

Michael Gove admits that post-Brexit trade deals were bad for farmers

Michael Gove has admitted for the first time that the Australia and New Zealand trade deals negotiated by the former Tory government did not protect Britain’s farmers.

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

Deleting this. Let us call it a transnational successful official thing. Fair is fair. I just remembered a Woman like that.

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

Oh yes they are, we just do it differently.

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

"C‘est normal", shrugs the worldly and contrarian diplomat/ columnist, demonstrating his superior mind by never, ever being surprised or shocked.

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

That is very often a very swift transition.

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

He is far from alone.
Do you know how many people I know, journalists, thinktankers, civil servants, politicians, who always excel at explaining to you why what is currently happening was always bound to happen, from which they conclude that it should happen?

Feelingantsy 🇬🇧🇩🇪. Maker of Puns @feelingantsy.bsky.social · 1d

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Reposted by Helene von Bismarck

Andrius Kubilius @andriuskubilius.ec.europa.eu · 1d

Sobering words from the German intelligence services - “We must not sit back and assume that a possible Russian attack would come in 2029 at the earliest. We are already under fire today.”

For deterrence now we must take the necessary decisions now.
www.euractiv.com/news/german-...

German spy chief says Russia won't shy from military confrontation | Euractiv

Germany’s foreign intelligence chief, Martin Jaeger, warned on Monday that Russia posed a direct threat and the current “icy peace” with the EU could erupt at any moment into “heated confrontation”. J...

www.euractiv.com

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Reposted by Helene von Bismarck

Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

UK friends, please follow the new German Ambassador in London Susanne Baumann
@germanambuk.bsky.social

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

Britain says Hi

Simon Hix @simonhix.bsky.social · 1d

Increasingly, politics in West Europe is a mirror of East Europe, with a large radical right party against a rag-tag of centrist/liberal, centre-left, green and radical left parties and a rapidly declining centre right. The challenge is to coordinate the progressive opposition to the radical right.

Catherine E. de Vries @catherinedevries.bsky.social · 1d

Scholars & pundits have focussed a lot on the electoral demise of center left, but in doing so we paid to little attention to the electoral problems of the center right.

Case-in-points here not only British conservatives or center right in France, but increasingly also the center right in Spain.

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

Why are people getting worked up about Jonathan Powell and do I even want to know?

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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 1d

Saying you were not born yesterday is a bit like saying you are a Lady. If you have to say it …
(slightly paraphrasing Margaret Thatcher here)...

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